The claims of Naomi Campbell about the modeling industry being racist seem to be gaining grounds after in an interview international supermodel Oluchi Onweagba has maintained that she has been hurt by few of the South African magazines, as they have refused to put a black on the covers. Oluchi Onweagba, born in Nigeria, who won the first Face of Africa competition in 1997, has come a long way since then. She named the local editions of Glamour and GQ magazine for having refused her just because of her skin color. She has been on the covers of the Italian edition of Vogue and also walked down the ramp as a Victoria’s Secret ‘Angel’, for top international designers like John Galliano, Christian Dior and Giorgio Armani.
As per her, GQ cancelled the photo shoot at the last minute when an insider revealed that a black had never been on their cover. However, the magazine’s editor Craig Tyson blamed it on their creative director. As per the Glamour editor Pnina Fenster, Oluchi wasn’t able to make to the dates and so they had to cancel the shoot but Oluchi claims that she was ready to reschedule.
About the issue Oluchi said,
As a Nigerian and an African I have done so much in my career to represent everything African in Western countries. There is a diverse group of people in South Africa, be it black, white, Asian. What baffles me is them saying they can’t put a black person on the cover of the South African edition.
Even the editor of SL Magazine admits to have featured very few blacks on the covers. Andy Davis, the former editor of SL Magazine said he wasn’t surprised by Oluchi’s statements as it ‘is an unwritten dogma in the consumer magazines industry that black covers don’t sell.’ Where the supermodel praised Indian edition of Vogue for its Indian-ness, she also appealed to the editors of Africa magazines to fight for a change and ‘embrace diversity’ without out casting the blacks.
Source: Thetimes
Image credit: Tinypic
